Is that the best the media can do? Guess we'll have to wait for the professional comedians (instead of the amateurs that the news media employs) to work this over.

Less funny but interesting: what would have happened if Clinton had shot someone under identical circumstances while still in office? Or Kerry on the campaign trail in 2004?

A couple of comments about Dick Cheney...
Was it really quail season?
Did he have a Texas P & W liscense to hunt quail?
Had he taken a Texas hunters safety course recently?

With such well-honed hunting skills, Dick might consider riding shotgun on convoys in Iraq!

Good thing Cheney didn't go to VietNam. He would have probably killed one of our own with Friendly Fire.

If only this had happened two administrations ago. No newspaper in the world could resist printing the headline "Quayle shoots hunter."

I note that some of the earlier reports claimed that Cheney shot a friend but this has now been corrected and words like pal or companion or lawyer substituted as it is well known that Cheney has no friends

Was Cheney given a drug/alchohol test after shooting?

Can't wait to catch the comedians tonite ie...Stewart, Colbert and Leno. They are going to have a blast with this one. Also, why did they wait almost 20 hours before releasing the information to the press.

What is going to make this even funnier is the White House "cover up" by Scott McClellan trying to side-step the issue, when if they hit it head on, it would die a natural death in a few days.

Bush gets Saddam instead of Osama and Cheney bags lawyer instead of bird.

Luckily Cheney travels with a full compliment of medical technicians and a mobile trauma suite.
The media here in Texas is making this sound like regular event for hunters. I've heard more than a few in the media say that this sort of thing happens all the time, and it's expected to happen to a hunter at some point.
It's expected? To get shot in the face by Dick Cheney? Hot damn!

Hunting Quayle? Spell potato incorrect and now you're hunted I guess.

So, from now on all a murder defendant has to do is say, "He got in my way when I fired my gun."
Amazing that Cheney and staff blames the victim.

Maybe the US media is waiting to make sure Mr. Whittington recovers fully. Accidentally shooting someone isn't really all that funny, especially if the end result is death.

But..... I'd still encourage Justice Scalia to accompany the Vice President on future hunting trips.

CREDIBLE INFORMATION
AP, 2/13/06, Austin Texas--
Vice President Cheney blamed inaccurate intelligence information for his accidental shooting of his hunting partner yesterday. "The CIA radioed me credible information that there were several quail right behind me, so I made a pre-emptive strike. Quail will fly off at the slightest provocation so it's important to act quickly if you want to get them. A certain level of collateral damage must be accepted." Donald Rumsfeld also held a news briefing on the incident. "Yes, we would like to have better means of tracking quail, but you go hunting with the equipment that you have. With the bird flu breathing down our necks, it's important that we all be pro-active when it comes to killing birds."

I thought it's usually his mouth that he shoots off.

git r' done!

The scoop is out! Dick Cheney is trigger happy! (Did we have any doubts?)

To continue the questions for the lazy MSM to ask:

-Will Wittington's medical costs (and prescritions) be paid for through Medicare (i.e., you and me)?
-Assuming the lawyer could just have easily shot Cheney, what does the Secret Service say about putting Cheney in this type of dander during wartime?
-What does the law say and what are the historical comparisons to others who have accidentally shot people while hunting?
-Is hunting on the ranch they were at legal? Can you hunt on private property in Texas?

If only the MSM "journalists" had half a brain these questions would already have been asked and their answers reported. Roll over one more time Edward R. Murrow.

Absolute best headline was in Huffington Post:

"Cheney's Got A Gun"

Heh...

I just read the report. Seems Cheney wasn't really at fault.

In hunters safety they teach you about "zones of fire" and how your not supposed to walk into them. Particularly right in front of other groups of hunters, and if you are, you're supposed to let your friends know you are there. The other guy walked off trying to find a bird and the group moved, he didn't call out his new position.

The article should be about a dumb lawyer instead.

Clinton Administration - Pimped Out.
Bush Administration - Thugged Out.

Well, My only guess is he was tipping a few back? He is a very experienced and that's the only thing that could explain it.

When we go on "gentelmen" hunts in South Carolina we often have a few. As dangerous as it is, we still do it and have a damn good time too.

OMG! When did Texas get a Quayle season?

Funny quick take from The Nation

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15

I thought that Cheney would have learned gun safety during his five tours in Viet Nam. No, wait a minute. It wasn't five tours. It was five deferments

Why the 20-hour lag in telling their story??? Because it takes that long to 'spin' a story all the way from Texas to DC and back again

C. Davie

I can only imagine the right wing media firestorm had a Democrat done the same thing. Where's all this liberal bias I keep hearing about? Nary a peep from the media flock over here. Maybe they're afraid Cheney might go hunting with them next?

What's the bag limit per day in lawyers in Texas?

Just goes to show you... everyone hates lawyers.

here´s one good for leno:

Well now the secret service has a new thing to worry about: It´s just not only The problem of someone shooting the vice president..now the have to worry that the vice-president may shoot someone.

or:

Well now the secrete service has aded a new chapter to their book of operations:
What to do when the shooter is the vicepresident.

The real story is in the WaPo article (the"play it safe" link above) -- the "good ole boy" network of corrupt cronyism that is what the GOP is all about.

If Whittington had shot Cheney, rather than the other way around, would Whittington have gone free?

There were actually three shots coming from a grassy knoll....

Either someone yelled Joe Wilson or this lawyer found no WMD.

Right....Ever noticed that it's socially acceptable and a big
chuckle for members of the right wing to be NRA gun nuts?
Ohh that Cheney ....the little Dickens...what'll he do next... more collateral damage or another shot at a colleague or perhaps a fist fight and obscenity on the floor of congress?
Well I don't find cheney's, and other right wing nuts' violent
tendencies, funny in the least.

Well as we take pop shots (excuse the pun) at Cheney he should be ashamed of shooting a lawyer. Would have been better if it was a reporter. They are lower on the food chain.

Cheney shot a lawyer? Is that a bad thing?

Talk about bad luck. When will we ever get a break. It should have been Whittington shoots Cheney. Better luck next time.

Too bad it wasn't one of the hunting trips with Scalia!

It seems that with this constant bombardment of media and government insanity in America these days something like this just doesn't seem that strange or shocking anymore. That sucks.

Come one, give Dick a break. "He didn't do anything he wasn't supposed to do." The guy was wearing a quail suit for god's sake. He was making quail-like noises through his nose. He deserved to be shot.

It is sortof funny, as long as the wounded guy doesn't die. But the earlier poster asked what would have happened if Clinton or Kerry had been the shooter. Most probably we'd have 'outrage' from the rightwing, calls for investigations, etc. There is definitely a good old boy double standard here.

But, in fairness, hunting accidents do happen. As far as 'blame', who really cares, assuming it was an accident?

I cannot count how many times my springer spaniel has jumped after birds that have been flushed. She would have been shot several times if I used the careless disregard for basic awareness one uses when hunting.

The GOP is going to have a hard time persuading hunters of their spin that this lawyer was 'out of position' and it was therefore his fault.

All gun accidents are the shooter's fault. If there is a rule about positioning on beats like this, it's that each hunter should stay aware of everybody else's position.

Whittington went to pick up a quail and supposedly came back without announcing himself. So what? Do hunting dogs announce themselves when they bring a downed quail back? Is it ok to shoot them then?

Apparently aides are now saying Cheney 'sprayed' him, because that sounds better than 'shot him'. So if Cheney had actually hit his bird, I guess he wouldn't have been 'shooting' it.

Aides also say: "[Cheney] was not careless or incautious or violate any of the [rules]. He didn't do anything he wasn't supposed to do."

I think they're going to have a hard time selling that at the NRA. Shooting a fellow hunter is definitely something you're not supposed to do. This guy is lucky Cheney was waving a 28 gauge and not a 12.

The really amazing thing is Cheney hasn't said he's sorry. Or perhaps that's not so amazing...

Steve Berman gets my vote for best joke here.

Secret service extra hazardous duty: Cheney's got a gun. One must read between the lines of the news reports to appreciate the pathetic humor of this slapstick scene. The great white hunters emerge from their car because they see quail "flushing" from the cage hidden in tall grass that opened on cue of the approaching caravan of dude ranch owner, secret service, the ambulance Cheney keeps on call, and luxury car carrying the "hunters." More confused birds fly in all directions as a second cage of flying targets is released in front of the aged dudes. As Cheney wheels around with his all-too-familiar blood thirsty grimmace taking aim at a bird flying right at, and then past him, a multitude of young agile secret service agents hit the ground, and the bewildered 78-year-old lawyer with bird carcass proudly in hand catches a face full of bird shot. Fortunately the peppering of his face and chest caused far less damage than the broken hip that would have occured if the old millionaire had also been able to avoid Cheney's shotgun by diving to the ground. And most of the quails that had been held captive for the sole purpose of aggrandizement of old men playing hunter got clean away.

Now Texans know the real meaning of "friendly fire" - from one of the gang that can't shoot straight!

With the lot in the White house, it adds a new dimension to the our pet name for them...."the gang that can't shoot straight"

A more cynical friend commented that there was an outsidee chance that it was a veiled message to pioneers not to talk to Irish lawyers....

I've quail hunted my entire life. Whoever said hunters must announce their whereabouts to the other hunters is wrong. And while being aware of shooting lanes is helpful, quail don't always follow the rules. The bottom line is, it is the SHOOTER that must be aware of his surroundings and know whether he is taking a safe shot or not. Before you pull the trigger, you MUST be sure you're not going to shoot your fellow hunter/dog/vehicle etc. This is Cheney's fault, NOT the guy who got shot!

The 20-hour delay before the official acknkowledgement from the White House calls to mind another "accident" that was also covered up at first--Chappaquiddick. Fortuntely, this weekend's results were much different, and Cheney is obviously no Ted Kennedy. But it shows how politicians still take their own sweet time releasing information that could be harmful to them.

Our media hacks could learn something from those overseas.

Nice try "Oklahoma hunter". Like real Americans believe a real Okey would blame our vice president for what is obviously not his fault. If you believe that Vice President Cheney meant to spray Whittington, well then you must be some East Coast left wing liberal American-hating nutcase.

We in the White House know the vice president and know what happened. Don't try to confuse us or America with any facts.

;^)

Next time invite Tom Delay and use bigger ammo

Well, we have know for some time that Republicans, in a figurative sense, can't shoot straight. Look at Joe McCarthy, Watergate, and currently the Abramoff scandals. Certainly Vice-President Cheney follow those traditions too, But he literally can't shoot. If Cheney had been in the service, he might have known to keep is weapon pointed down range, learned little bit about fire discipline, and, most of all, something about target identification. But, he might have been lost in Vietnam, and where would President Bush be today. Certainly, with Karl Rove's advice and his own skill, the President could still govern by campaigning continually. However, without the Vice-President, who would have gone to the the various intelligence agencies to brow beat them, and cherry pick the intelligence to justify going to war in Iraq. Without the Vice-President, could the Administration have presented every preconception and illusion about the Middle East in such a convincing fashion? I don't think it would have been possible! Now, with Iran and Syria as targets, his skills are irreplaceable for the Administration. He will be able to cherry pick all kinds of intelligence to justify some sort of conflict or harassment. They even have France and the EU involved. Apparently, France learned nothing from the Suez. As with Iraq, the Democratic leadership in Congress has bought into Iran, Syria, and North Korea "debate".
Well, they can all look to Vice-President Cheney to justify any presumption or illusion. Look at France and the EU! Who would have thought it possible? As to his skills with a weapon, I do believe he would have done very well in Vietnam in a "Free Fire Zone".

Dick Cheney is a menace to society!

Outed CIA officer was working on Iran,
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Outed_CIA_officer_was_working_on_0213.html
By outing Valerie Plame, the White House removed the prime source for real facts about Iran's nuclear energy programs that might contradict the war-propaganda.

In considering this incident with regard to the past five years, you have to at least give these guys points for consistency. To my knowledge there isn't anything these guys haven't screwed up. The Times should do a FOIA requests to see how many people have drown while fishing with Duck Cheney.

In anticipation of Letterman's show tonight, this has already been circulating around the Net:

Dick Cheney's top 10 excuses for shooting fellow hunter Harry Whittington

Author unknown

10. Sick and tired of Whittington's "Hey, I'm having a heart attack" jokes
9. Pushed over edge by Dixie Chicks and Streisand blasting on pick-up truck stereo
8. Ongoing dispute over whether it's acceptable to torture quail before shooting them
7. Thought he saw Scooter Libby on other side of tree line
6. Bombed out of his gourd on Wild Turkey and Lone Star Beer
5. Companion's ill-advised decision to wear Moveon.org sweatshirt
4. Was trying to impress Jodie Foster
3. Whittington's repeated ribbing that Bush is actually the "real president"
2. Targeting scope on rifle made by Halliburton

And the number one excuse given by Dick Cheney for almost blowing away hunting companion Harry Whittington...

1. Because he's a wartime vice president, damn it

This is "news" for those of you that don't hunt. There is an accepted risk when you go out to the field with a gun, and sometimes accidents happen no matter how long you've been hunting. Quail bust out from heavy cover in every direction at a very fast pace, and, from the accounts I've read, the lawyer was standing in a low spot and didn't make his presence known. I'd say both parties are at fault. The news here is the press missing an opportunity to skewer the VP over what they percieve to be a big deal. It's just a couple of guys out hunting. It happens every weekend across much of the country.

Suggested headline: Cheney shoots political ally; opponents tremble

Why is the media up in arms about the delay in reporting Cheney's shooting to the public? After all, Cheney, Bush and Rove needed time to figure out how they could blame it all on Bill Clinton.

WY Dave wrote: [hunting accidents] "happens every weekend across much of the country."

Not so in Texas"
"In 2004, Texas' 1 million-plus hunters were involved in 29 hunting-related accidents, four of which were fatal."
Read about it here:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3654597.html

Peppering? He didnt' get a handful of rice thrown at him! He was shot in the face with a shotgun!
By calling it "peppering", it downplays the inherent danger of firearms and the responisbility of owning and operating them. A 7 year old boy was killed over the weekend in Spotsylvania Co. in an accident with a similar shotgun.
You hear of people shot every morning on the news, do you hear them saying "So and So was "lightly peppered" by a shotgun last night and now he's in the ICU. But the victim is doing just fine, couldn't feel better!"

As a hunter, I feel it is totally irresponsible to downplay the effects and responisbility of owning and operating firearms. Ridiculous.

"Peppered"

Everyone posted is wrong! what the guy said was INDICTMENT.

Wow, . . going out in the brush to face the fearsome wild quail, armed only with a flimsy 12-gauge automatic shotgun and a bevy of armed buddies, . . that Dick Cheney is one heck of a brave man.

I guess some of us vets who resented his cowardice during the Vietnam war were too hasty in our evaluation of this heroic figure.

John Kerry knocked down and wounded a secret service guy on the ski slope. Kerry cursed at him, the secret service guy limped away. If not for a government (union) employee blog, no one would have known. The Left-Wing Media's new rule'

DON'T CALL 911, CALL the WaPo.

would you rather drive in a car with Ted Kennedy or go hunting with Dick Cheney.

The media sat on the kidnapped reporter story for 48 hours. Apparently, only reporters are entitled to privacy.

HEY,YOU!!! Chency didn't shot him, he
PEPPERED him. Peppered him. Don't you understand? You're so biased. You know it wasn't a shooting, because they didn't have to call the poleese.

Karen, are you really comparing running into a Secret Service agent on the ski slope to shooting a fellow hunter? If Clinton had shot a fellow hunter, would you apologize for him too?

Boy, republicans sure are sensitive about their image, and only their image.

Yeah that's it: Cheney peppered him, salted him and threw him in the oven at 425 degrees for an hour until he was golden brown.

When a GUN is involved it's called a SHOOTING! Heck, I got SHOT by a stupid air gun once and no one said "sorry I peppered you with a single grain!"

Shooting quail is not as easy as you think. Before second-guessing the VP, try it yourself in the online "Quail Hunting With Dick Cheney" game:
http://dickcheneyquailhunt.cf.huffingtonpost.com/

Is Is it really true, that the little birds were
kept in cages waiting for our hero to
come by and kill them as they flew free? What sport. What
sportsmanship. Does Cheney, do the old doods
spear fish in a barrel for fun, for SPORT , too? More important, how do they regard the live targets sent to Iraq? Cheney is such a doll.

Sully, nice try on twisting my words. I didn't say hunting accidents happen every weekend, I said people go hunting every weekend. But I know to many of you that hunting and Dick Cheney are both evil and should be outlawed.

Try getting out of the Beltway every now and then. There's a wonderful country out there full of your fellow Americans; and yes, some of us enjoy hunting.

Conservative blogger John Podhoretz, seeking to tame the spinning instincts of his fellow GOPers, made this excellent point:
"Saying that, hey, people get shot all the time when they're out hunting and it's no big deal really isn't an argument you want to be making if you are a supporter of gun rights."

The rules of gun and hunting safety are clear, and anyone who knows them knows Cheney was grossly negligent. It's absurd to suggest that a hunter who doesn't announce his presence has contributed to his accident. Most hunting REQUIRES you to sneak around.

If Cheney hunted like normal people, instead of shooting tame animals on the estates of his fellow aristocrats, he'd know. Most people hunt on public land and unexpectedly run into other hunters all the time. Do Pennslyvania Whitetail hunters walk through the woods shouting out warnings? My arse they do.

Every gun accident is the fault of the guy holding the gun that went off. Simple as that.

It will be interesting to see how NRA Republicans spin it. Do they claim hunting is intrinsically dangerous when they're in the middle of a campaign to encourage kids to hunt? Do they want to undermine the argument for gun rights?

Personally, for me it's a no-brainer, since I love guns and hate Dick Cheney.

As the NRA loves to say, it's not the gun's fault, it's the idiot holding it.

I hate guns, but having lived in Alaska I know the difference between shotguns and rifles and handguns. Only D.C. shut ins would mention air guns in the same breath. Shotguns spray. That is why the use them , or else that little bird would be demolished by a big blast. Not many people die of shotgun blasts except at close range and usually a divorce lawyer nearby. It is my understanding a civil lawyer, who is a real nice guy, was involved. I wish him well, and I am enjoying the stupidity of the medias "call a reporter, than an ambulance" mentality. Where was Cheney's press detail? Did they not notice the ambulance? The media is withholding cartoons that has the country rioting, and have hidden their bias and fear behind their ridiculous get-Cheney search for the truth. Outside of the hate Bush crowd, which according to polls has either finished their Kool-aide or decreased in numbers, the people of America want to hear about Al Gore seeing Arab being rounded up in America. Did he actually say the bad guys all look like Cheney except they have are green and have antenna?
Liberal fools, keep Cheney-ing yourselves in the foot. David Gregory is a laughing stock because he is getting to the "real story". If he had courage, he would report on cartoons.

Don't you get it? The snarling, arrogant Cheney, boss of an adminisration that never admits mistakes, is never wrong, runs over the law cause they're the law. Warmongers, kings of the world. Now he's shown incompetent, culpable, and he looks silly. Silly. Made fun of. And the best jokes to come tonight. Wish I could feel their pain. Ya, right.

Some states require the details of a hunting injury to be reported within a certain amount of hours after the incident. Anyone have info on whether the incident was reported in a timely manner to the State of Texas?

It's not often Cheney makes himself a target for laughs, usually he's in his bunker.

Here's my take: http://steelsingscold.blogspot.com/2006/02/demons-of-five-d-dick.html

>billm. Unfortunately if things weren't reported it'd be covered up in Texas. We'll never know. It'd been interesting to hear the plots to cover up the whole thing those lost hours. And oh,pardon me, I hear they weren't shooting quail, they were
"harvesting" them. Dear God.

All of us really cool progressives who post here know that Bush Lies and People Dies.

The only reason that Bush's illegal war for oil is able to continue is by the jingoistic flag waving of the corporate controlled media. The really cool progressives use the Internet to question authority and have intellectual discussion of topics that the corporate controlled media won't cover.

I am somewhat of an expert on 9/11. I know from looking at some really cool progressive Web sites that it wasn't the propaganda that the corporate controlled media would have you believe of 19 hijackers and jet airplanes.

I know of some really cool progressive sites that show how it was squib charges and holograms that destroyed the WTC. I can look at a 72 dpi image posted on a really cool progressive Web site and tell you exactly how steel is affected by burning jet fuel and the physics of an impact of 500-plus mph by a large object. That is what the Internet can do for us really cool progressives.

There's a lot more going on in the 9/11 cover-up than meets the eye. People who buy every word that the corporate-controlled media says should go buy George Orwell's 1984 and practice up; it won't be long before the hopelessly indoctrinated manage to get the clocks to thirteen here. Peace. -- Scott Laughrey

If, as Scott McClellan repeatedly states, the Cheney team and the White House didn't announce this incident because all of their attention was focused on the health of the 87-year-old victim, one must ask, where were all of the public affairs personnel who are paid to respond to incidents of this nature? This is the pre-Katrina White House, with no one is in charge and no one able to respond in a timely and intelligent manner. The White House is a microcosm of the war in Iraq, or is it the other way around?

So much for "blaze orange," people! It can make you a better target!

Oops, I meant 78-year-old victim. And who in their right mind would go hunting with a 78-year-old, and then blame the 78-year-old for getting in the way of his shotgun?

Except for what Blaise said, the other comments are nothing but "cheap shots."

I hunt and shoot a right good bit, and if you shoot someone, whether you call it peppering him of what, YOU MESSED UP. No weak excuses. Oh, and you who said something like shotguns don't usually kill people, uh, hello, is that why the police carry them ?

Give it a rest, for both their sakes. Thank God Whittington wasn't killed. Find some real news to report. This democrat is tired of hearing about personal suffering made public all because we love to play this political bashing game...

Saralea: 1) "Canned hunts," have become common practice of "hunt clubs" that charge rich clients for shooting caged game released on cue. 2) The possibility of flushing wild game to shoot at upon stepping out of a car is extremely remote without resort to such canned "SPORT." 3) Ranch owner Katharine Armstong is reported to have been waiting her "turn to shoot" in a car--obviously this was no hunting expedition in any traditional sense.
A canned hunt takes place on private property where a hunter can pay a fee to shoot a caged animal upon release. According to People for Animal Rights, (http://www.parkc.org/canned.htm):
"Because most rank-and-file hunters cannot afford hundreds of dollars per trophy, canned hunts have become the privileged playgrounds of the wealthy elite. Doctors and lawyers trek from the suburbs for a weekend killing spree, and high-priced lobbyists entertain politicians on shooting preserves. Canned hunting preserves have begun to rival golf courses as favorite landscapes while wheeling and dealing.
"President George Bush celebrated his victory after the 1988 election at the Lazy F Ranch near Beeville, Texas. 'These aren't animals, these are wild quail,' he later responded to criticism. President Bush apparently never studied the Animal Kingdom, and has an odd definition of 'wild' that includes captive birds who were hand-fed and raised in pens."

Is this our lazy American media's attempt to make up for not showing the cartoons?

Sorry, I remain unimpressed! So what if the VP's office told them 24 hrs later, was the media expecting to deliver some devine emergency medical care to the Autin Lawyer, unavailable in Texas?

This is another non-story being flushed dwon the gutts of Americans. There are serious issues to report on, get back to work!

Perhaps the quail in Texas wear orange vests as Mr.Whittington should have. That could be why the VP was confused. They both looked the same.If any of you out there have a bad ticker, perhaps you can get the government to supply you with an ambulance and medical care when ever you go out. Just a thought.

I think we should get over the media aspect of this issue and focus on the fact that our government administration is just full of complete idiots.

What the heck was the VP of the United States doing hunting when we have a friggin' war going on in Iraq and multitudes of crises in the Gulf Coast (just to name a few)?

I swear, this is the most slacker-esque administration EVER! It embarasses me to be living here with these morons in such high positions.

Dick Cheney. Bang, Bang...Bang, Bang, Bang! Our Vice-President. Sporty goodfellow! Thunder Pimp of the Forest! Hero of the NRA!
Aren't we Americans lucky?

So when I heard the news about Cheney's marksmanship, I turned on the TV. I checked out the "fair and balanced" network and guess what? Nothing. Not a word on it. Later, much later, two sentences. Even the big 3 and CNN were not giving the story any play. Lesson: The media is afraid of the Bush group. It's why the big lie contiues. Just think what the coverage would have been like if it were Bill Clinton the shooter.

...and he's considered the smart one?

Dick:

Dick,I like your style. Reminds me of my hunting days, boy those were great times.
You'd fit right in here. The way you handled the press afterward was great. You can make anything sound believable. Americans are so dumb. They never cross-examine you or follow up on your inconsistencies and totally unsubstantiated assertions. You sure have it sweet. When I get out of prison (and I will) you should come hunting with me. And bring that other All-American charmer, Ken Lay, with you when you come.

There is no excuse - not ever - for shooting another person while hunting. You can't do it if you follow the basic rules that i learned by the time i was 12 years old , and most hunters learn. No excuse.

Heard on a TV newscast a few hours ago that Cheney has been admonished (or something) for not having the required "Bird Stamp" on or for his Texas hunting license. If this is borne out, he's a game law violator. Didn't see anything on this on The O'Reilly Factor. (Don't believe Big Bill knows much about guns or hunting.)

Cheney's shooting of a 78-year-old man, believing him to be a quail, is a fitting metaphor for how Cheney will go down in history: as the man who prodded and goaded his nation into a bloody, costly and destabilizing war on the basis of one hyped-up, fear-mongering lie after another. Cheney represents the ugliest side of America: the macho, shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later mindset that seems to populate the upper reaches of the Republican party and its fellow travellers.

Forever on, the Bush White House should be known as the gang that couldn't shoot straight.

One angle that's been widely ignored is: who is Katharine Armstrong, Cheney's host?

She's a lobbyist. She works for the Texas engineering firm Parsons, which is a sort of mini-Halliburton, with extensive govt contracts in Iraq. Her firm also represents Lockheed Martin, one of the great white welfare queens of the defense establishment.

So like Cheney himself, she has profited from the Iraq war. Cheney, of course, continued to be paid a "deferred salary" by leading contractor Halliburton all the while he was talking up the phoney case for war - a war that's seen Halliburton's stock triple in value.

Cheney's salary from Halliburton was actually greater than his VP's salary from the American people. Who needs lobbyists when you're paying a six-figure sum directly to the Vice-President of the USA?

Armstrong is also a Bush 'Pioneer'. That's a person who raised more than $100,000 for one of Bush's presidential campaigns. If you raise $200,000 you get to be a "Ranger".

Of the 246 fundraisers identified by The Washington Post as Pioneers in the 2000 campaign, 104 -- or slightly more than 40 percent -- ended up in a job or an appointment.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29142-2004May15.html

For example: one Bush Pioneer, a certain Kenneth Lay, was named to the Energy Department transition team, and got to pick members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Here's a list of Bush Pioneers.

http://www.whitehouseforsale.org/ContributorsAndPaybacks/pioneer_search.cfm
You'll find Kenny Boy and Katharine Armstrong there. In fact the list is in alphabetical order, so if you just scroll to the top you'll find one of the most famous Bush Pioneers of all - whom Bush claims never to have heard of - a Mr Jack Abramoff.

It's interesting that so many are deriding Cheney, mocking him as a guy that "couldn't shoot straight". However, on the basis of the success he's attained in life, both inside and outside of the White House, one could only conclude that he's perhaps more competant than all of you put together. After all, who's the real loser here? The Vice President of the United States or a bunch of yokels who have nothing better to do than post leftist conspiracy theories on Washingtonpost.com (yes, I'm referring to you, OD)?

I agree, RS.

Clearly a man who can start a war on completely false pretences for the benefit of the company that's paying his salary has made a success out of American public life.

In fact just by getting away with continuing to draw a salary from a govt contractor while in office, Cheney has outdone all previous Veeps. They could only hold down one job - Vice-President. Cheney could do two at once.

By the way, conspiracy theories describe events that are not proven, or public knowledge. What you're reading above is called conspiracy fact.

Ooops, that was me, OD, not you, RS.

And, of course, RS, by your logic, some dirt-poor soldier who dies in Cheney's war has made nothing of his life and should be reviled as a complete failure.
Meanwhile Cheney's pals at Halliburton, who have raked in billions from the war, are success stories to be admired.

No, I tend to disagree "RS". Conspiracy theorists tend to draw irrelevant, often unrelated, facts (or fiction) together in order to paint a skewed portrait that suits their world views (e.g. the panapoly of Kennedy assasination theories). OD (along with most of the White House Press corps) has chosen to go off on a tangent of what's essentially an amusing hunting accident involving a high profile personality. What exactly does that hunting trip have to do with Abramoff, Halliburton, etc.? I mean, who honestly cares and more to the point, why do you?

Cheney's hunting trip with Scalia was a direct conflict of interest because Scalia was about to rule on Cheney's right to set energy policy in secret meetings with oil executives.

Cheney's hunting trip at Armstrong's ranch is also a conflict of interest, because it shows that the man who pushed the Iraq war hardest is accepting hospitality from a lobbyist who represents a company that has profited from the Iraq war.

Of course that's a pretty minor breach for Cheney, since he is himself the paid representative of such a company and was actually instrumental in setting the war policy, not to mention fabricating a lot of the phoney evidence, such as the Niger forgery.

This sort of corruption clearly doesn't bother you, RS. Does it bother your fellow Americans? I guess we'll find out in November.

Yea, what's the big deal about shooting your fellow man? I did it all the time.

Besides, Dick is just getting warmed up...over 2,000 dead Americans, 16,000 dead Iraquis, what's one more person? Dick thinks big. He'll be in office for THREE more years. With hordes of deep thinkers like Mr. 'RS' (see above) he will have plenty of support on his careening crash toward "World War 3"

I really admire this guy.

Happy Valentine's Day, Dick

The scandal uncovered by this accident is far more sinister than the accident and Cheney's stubborn secrecy.

The ranch's owner is no private citizen, this was no NORMAL private hunting trip. The woman is a REGISTERED lobbyist. Not only was Cheney there, but Rove has been there as well.

Secondly, Bush in a New York Times article last year described her as a close personal friend that he and Laura were spending some time with that evening.

Third,this woman has DONE BUSINESS with the White House, and more than once...Abramoff would die for this trifecta of access to the three stooges in the White House.

Lastly, one of this woman's clients has very close ties to the Saudi Royal Family!
Can we say oil y'all?

Forget the shooting, and concentrate on the underlying facts that have found the light of day.

Pinto Bean
http://www.blogcharm.com/beltwaypintobeans/

So NRA favorite Dick Cheney shoots an elderly man in the face while on a private hunting outing with a big-oil lobbyist. The same Dick Cheney who gave the green light to put a CIA operative's life in danger to settle a political score. The same Dick Cheney who deliberately misled his nation into a bloody, destabilizing and immensely costly war in Iraq.
Could someone please tell me why this man is still taken seriously by anyone?
Could someone tell me why this man is not yet behind bars?

Where is it written that the media must be informed about everything that happens in our world. The fact that the media was not immediately called seems to be the underlying theme of protest. After a time the public (no matter which side you are on) gets tired of it. I have not seen too many comparisons about what happened when Mary Jo went into the water and the action or inaction that followed.
It would seem that big Bill should have also called reporters after his session in the White House with that staff member so that they did not have to waitto bring it to the public's attention.
The media are a bunch of cry babies.